Bobby Bare, Jr.

by Eleanor DitzelNominated for a Grammy at age five for doing a duo with his renowned country music dad, Bobby Bare, Jr., also managed to sing on the Ryman Auditorium stage on its closing night. Although his dad is remembered for contemporary country songs like "500 Miles Away from Home" and "Houston," Bare Jr. took off in a different direction, reflected in the name of his CD Young Criminals' Starvation League, released in 2002 by Bloodshot. While the CD picks up the flavor of early-'70s classic country with Nashville soul, it also testifies to an angry and sad type of humor. An oddball combination of post-punk and psychedelic melancholy, the CD reflects Bare Jr.'s skill and depth as a musical artist who doesn't have to slouch in his father's shadow. During the late '90s Bare Jr. put together his own indie rock band, appropriately called Bare Jr., with Bare Jr. as frontman, Keith Brogdon (drums), Tracy Hackney (dulcimer, harmonies), and Dean Tomasek (bass). The band put out two CDs, Boo-Tay and Brainwasher, that twist the classic Nashville sounds in a joyous, delightful, devious, self-loathing way. In August 2003, Bare Jr. performed at Bumbershoot 2003 in Seattle, and in October 2003, Bloodshot released OK - I'm Sorry... for Bare Jr. as an individual, not as a band. From the End of Your Leash followed in 2004. Two years later, Bare Jr. gathered friends from My Morning Jacket, ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Lambchop, and Clem Snide to serve as his Young Criminals' Starvation League on the live recording The Longest Meow.